On Monday I had the pleasure of judging a contest for spoken English. I was invited to be a consultant, to offer advice as to how to speak English better, but when I arrived they asked me to judge the competition. With the exception of maybe two or three, the students spoke well and were easy to understand. As with any foreign language, vocabulary was the real challenge.

The contest consisted of two parts, the first being a reading exercise where the students were given a few paragraphs of an article and they were to read as much as possible within two minutes. In the second half of the contest the student was given a question on which they could speak for up to five minutes. All in all it was very interesting.

Following this Ms Zhou (Ms Jo) and I went to a foreign language book store to get a Spanish textbook (in Chinese) so she could begin to learn spanish. While there we found several books in English (as well as Mandarin) so I picked up a few of special interest to me, and perhaps other philosophers (Mencius, some Kong Fu Tze, and a book entitled "tending the roots of wisdom" which is largely unknown but is wonderful.)

Another wonderful meal ended the day (two kinds of shrimp, some beef dish, a fried eggplant that was actually delicious (not like eggplant at all), corn soup, and as always a host of other dishes).

Yesterday was spent relaxing and reading, as well as doing a bit of preparation of material for my lecture tomorrow morning at the university, as well as the talk I will be giving at BHA at a later date.

A final note before I go, here is a link I believe is of worth a moment of your time, especially in this all too political season:

http://nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/20930.htm

Also check out the book Dissenting Electorate: Those Who Refuse To Vote and the Legitimacy of Their Opposition for more on this subject.

Brian